Zsofia Pasztor rights her ship while helping the community

On April 21, The Herald Business Journal will announce the 2016 recipient of the Emerging Leaders Award. This week and next, we are profiling 12 finalists, who were chosen by a panel of judges from among dozens of nominees.

A friend once told Zsofia Pasztor that if she was “the captain of the Titanic, it would still be floating, patched and with lots of marks, but floating.” It’s an accurate portrayal of her life.

Pasztor and her husband left communist Hungary in 1987 and spent two years in a United Nations camp before being picked to go to the U.S. in 1989. When she arrived, Pastzor spoke no English, had no marketable skills and had little idea about American culture.

“We overcame many obstacles, including poverty and serious health challenges,” Pasztor wrote in her nomination form. “We left Hungary with two backpacks. By 2008, we had a high-end landscape design-build company with many employees, equipment and fantastic clientele.”

Then the recession hit. Everything came tumbling down. Work dried up fast and it became obvious the business wouldn’t survive.

“I went into survivor mode,” Pasztor said. “Working to hold onto all of our employees because they had family, figuring out ways for them to delay the need to go on unemployment so they can last longer with income during the holidays.”

They closed after the holidays on Feb. 25, 2009. She and her husband filed for bankruptcy that year.

Since then, she and her husband opened Innovative Landscape Technologies, a small business building rain gardens and sustainable landscapes. She founded Farmer Frog, a nonprofit organization that supports edible school gardens. She started teaching horticulture part-time at Edmonds Community College. And she righted her ship.

“I do not plan on coloring my hair. I earned every white and silver line I have,” she said.

Paztor belongs to several organizations including the Financial Asset Development Coalition of Snohomish County; the Rain Garden Coalition of Snohomish County; the Sno-King Watershed Council; Livable Snohomish County; the EdCC’s Horticulture Curriculum Board; Snohomish County Professional Women’s Network. She’s also served as president of the Sustainable Development Task Force of Snohomish County.

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